First days in Graz

September 1st, my new apartment

The last day has been really difficult for me. In part it’s that I haven’t been eating properly-a combination of not wanting to impose on people who were doing me a favor, not feeling sure of my choices, and not really wanting to eat. But today, as I felt really low emotionally and weak physically, I realized that on top of not sleeping much for a couple of days, I hadn’t eaten anything more than a coffee and a juice in 24 hours and not much in the 24 hours before that. So I found food, took it home, and ate it. This is much more complicated in a city you don’t know, relying on your second language. I blend in well though: people have already asked me for directions twice, and everyone who doesn’t already know I’m an exchange student has used German with me. (Many if not most people here speak English better than I do German.)

I went to a Spar first and bough Zweibelbrotchen and Bergkaese. (Little onion breads and mountain cheese.) I tried to walk to the historic part of town to enjoy scenery with my meal, but my recouses were too low to manage it properly and I ended up walking in circles. I finally sat down on a bench and tried to eat, but even small bites made me feel nauseous. So I walked on and found a farmer’s market. I had wanted some fruit or vegetables to go with my meal, and here I saw beautiful tomatoes. I picked out a few and handed them to the owner of the stall, but when she saw how few there were she just gave them to me. I felt very taken care of, particularly since I had been feeling very alone.

I went home to eat so that I could have washed tomatoes and also something to drink. I had to eat kind of slowly to avoid feeling sick again, but I definitely feel better now. If I can find the energy in time, I’ll go out again-I could use tape for decorating, but more importantly I didn’t see any toilet paper in the bathroom. I still need to unpack, too.

Later

I just went out again, and along with toilet paper, I got cereal and milk for tomorrow, plus almonds for emergency protein. This time I didn’t get lost at all, and I remembered where the Spar from before was. Pretty impressive for a trip done while I needed to pee!

The wind has really come up in the last hour. I think a storm might be blowing in.

September 2, 2010, 19/2/2 Ghegagasse (my apartment)

My intuition has been through the roof lately. I navigated the...interesting...layout of the Frankfurt airport on a lucky guess, and if I had chosen the other option, I would have missed my flight to Graz. (As it was, I was in the last ten people through the gate-everyone else had already boarded.) Then today at Ikea, I bought batteries mostly on a whim...a few hours later, my camera batteries died.

(Belated) Travel Liveblogging

Travel Status: In Progress

from Sea-Tac airport

Since I don’t have trustworthy internet, I’m writing this in a Pages document to be posted later. At any rate, my journey has begun! I got up at six this morning (much more impressive, Geoff got up at six this morning, and with much less incentive) and got ready to go. We made it to SeaTac a little late, assuming you’re supposed to allow two hours for international travel, but no harm done. Saying goodbye to Geoff was the hardest one of all. Apart from everything else, he’s the only one I’ve never had to say goodbye to for long before.

I always worry going though security, and I never have any trouble. (Apparently airport security doesn’t find ernest looking young white women very threatening. How surprising...) Now I’m waiting to board my first flight, from Seattle to Calgary. Then Calgary to Frankfurt, and finally Frankfurt to Graz. I already saw a woman arround my own age wearing a shirt that said, “I speak Denglish, for better or for Wurst!” My sister’s boyfriend asked me to bring him the corniest tourist shirt I could possibly find. I think there’s going to be a lot of contenders...

from Calgary International airport

One time zone jumped, one flight down. I’m hanging out at my gate, despite having two and a half hours left before boarding. This next flight will be the big one. When we land, I’ll be in Europe for the first time, but I won’t be done flying yet. From the Frankfurt airport I have one more flight to Graz.

midflight to Frankfurt, 8 p.m. Bellingham time, somewhere between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. local time

After a beautiful sunset, it’s now full dark. So far I’ve watched a Hopalong Cassidy movie with dinner (both were surprisingly good), seen an episode of Scooby Doo while tipsy (an impressively surreal experience, and surely a good way of marking the first time I’ve been allowed to have alcohol in a public setting), and cringed at an episode of Hell’s Kitchen. By the way, everyone who told me Lufthansa was good was absolutely right. The seats are relatively big, the meal was good, and the availability of media is excellent. I even have access to electricity, although not internet. Some day...

Also, first class Lufthansa is beyond cool. Instead of forward facing seats, they have cool sideways sections shaped like the dividing line of a yin-yang. Someday, I’ll fly Lufthansa first class. I only hope it isn’t so far away that they’ve changed their seating!

I’m a little nervous about my transfer in Frankfurt. I wasn’t given a ticket for my flight to Graz at Sea-Tac; they swore up and down that I had to pick it up in Frankfurt. I also don’t know whether I have to manually transfer my luggage, or how much of a layover I’ll have. Thank god I understand German fairly well. This gives me a whole new respect for the courage of people who travel to countries where they don’t know the language. One of my good friends spent her summer in Italy and Turkey, when her only languages are English and German. Another is going to spent this next semester in India. She doesn’t speak any of the Indian dialects. On the other hand, this trip has also given me a new respect for my own courage. By doing a Direct Exchange, I’m relying heavily on my own organizational, linguistic, and practical skills. It seems like the other exchange students I know are flying on flights that were arranged for them, at times chosen for them, or are even going in groups. Weak sauce, my friends.

I don’t actually mean that, of course. Any exchange is a huge effort, and differences in how much are a matter of very small degree. The challenge of leaving the people and things we love behind and surviving in an unfamiliar context is the real thing, and that doesn’t change.

Graz, Austria, at Nina’s sister’s apartment

Wow, Nina, my Austrian mentor is worth her weight in gold. I hope they’re paying her, because she’s helping me a ton, and she’s doing it for three other people, too.